ON PASSAGE

An Element of Risk and an Uncertain Outcome

Part 3: New Age Piracy A delivery from South Africa to the Persian Gulf takes them up the Indian Ocean and through pirate infested waters

by Bill Biewenga

The mysteries of the Indian Ocean’s

Maldives and Chagos Bank would have to remain veiled behind the horizon. Monish, Nirvana’s owner, would not be able to rejoin us in Mauritius. Lia Ditton and I would be taking the 48-foot Gunboat catamaran ourselves past reported pirate incidents and up to the Gulf of Oman, 3,400 miles away, for the final approach to the Straits of Hormuz and Dubai. Together, we would be immersed in geo-political current events.

Valerie Schaeublin from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, part of the U.S. Department of State had told us of piracy incidents that had taken place off Mauritius and the Seychelles. Global news would soon bring unwanted fame to a British couple who had been kidnapped by pirates off the Seychelles and taken to Africa. Lia and I preferred to forego that sort of notoriety for ourselves.

Friends of ours suggested filing float plans, but no one seemed to know who to file them with or how effective that would be as we changed our course and heading with the changes in the weather. One U.S. Admiral suggested we turn around and go back to South Africa. I had to wonder whether that was how the U.S. Navy conducted its business when things became difficult, or if it was just being suggested to me as we attempted to deliver a boat to the Middle East for its owner.

Another friend, a man who owns a shipping fleet of bulk carriers, came to the rescue when he passed along the advice offered to his own ships’ captains: Contact the Maritime Security Centre for the Horn of Africa. It was suggested that we

should track east of 67 degrees East as we sailed north in the Indian Ocean. It is also now suggested that mariners check contact information prior to departure. At that time, it was too late for that particular preparation, however. Whether or not that would be good enough to get us past the piracy problems was anyone’s guess, as the reported incidents of piracy crept further and further to the east.

After contacting the UKMTO and the Piracy Reporting Centre, we were instructed to file daily position reports with the UKMTO. If we encountered any suspicious problems, we were to immediately contact the Piracy Reporting Centre on their 24-hour hotline (+603 2031 0014), and they would direct the necessary and appropriate authorities to our location.

It was reassuring to know that someone out there was able to follow our progress and perhaps call in the authorities if necessary. But even with daily position reports going out from us and frequent piracy “situation reports” coming in from friends ashore, we had to wonder whether it would do any good as a means of keeping us out of harm’s way. We decided to be as discreet as possible as we sailed north. There were to be no radio transmissions, radar transmissions or running lights used at night unless we saw ships coming up on our AIS and were reassured that they were legitimate ships. Meanwhile, the two of us kept a very sharp lookout, especially at night when we knew that we’d be difficult for other, legal vessels to see.

I can’t really promote the idea of sailing without running lights. It flies in the face of responsible and perhaps even legal sailing. However, when we were informed that there had been a piracy incident only 60 miles to our west, that reality struck a chord. We weren’t interested in any side trips to Somalia. Being unarmed, discretion seemed the better part of valor. The Piracy Reporting Centre’s hotline number was put in the speed dialer on the Iridium phone, and the EPIRBs were tested again and kept handy. Lia and I discussed who would do what

in the event that a boarding was attempted: I’d drive and change sails. She’d be busy making phone calls with our current position, speed and heading.

Amidst the drama, there was still a sense of humor while we took our precautions seriously. Lia, being the linguist in the group, learned to say, “Please take off your shoes.” and “Would you like a cup of coffee?” in Somali. I suggested that in the event of a boarding, she might want to hide one of the EPIRBs under her burkha, although I’m not sure if that was really part of her wardrobe.

We worked our way further to the north. Still undecided about where to pick up Monish for the final stretch into Dubai, friends sent us information about Customs clearance into Oman and various Emirates in the UAE. Since each Emirate has different laws regarding Customs and Immigration, it wasn’t as simplistic as one might think. And since there were unmarked rocks within a few hundred yards of the harbor’s entrance, a very good case could be made for a daylight approach – or local guidance. Monish arranged to meet us in Fujairah on the eastern coast of the UAE shortly after dusk with a small power boat and a group of men who would guide us into the port.

After three weeks at sea, Lia and I were ready to make landfall. The sailing and sunshine had been beautiful. As engineer onboard the boat, Lia had done a spectacular job dealing with the various maintenance issues and putting things back together if they failed. As someone to sail with through a wide variety of problems and situations, she definitely set a high-water mark of excellence. But it was getting to be time to make landfall, and I doubted that she would miss my mashed potatoes or pasta al pesto.

The people in Fujairah proved to be exceptionally helpful and friendly. Clearing customs was made easy by the people who ran the marina. The facilities were modern, and we managed to find a little time to go through the souk down the street. It certainly seemed like a place to return to. But it was only going to be an overnight stay, and the morning saw us depart for the overnight passage through the Straits of Hormuz, bordered on the north by Iran and on the south by Oman and the UAE.

As night fell, we could see the shipping lanes to our starboard, with its steady stream of tankers. To port, the mountains of Oman loomed through the dusty, moonlit haze. We worked our way between a few islands and anchored ships, staying well to the south of the shipping lanes. We had already dealt with the threat of pirates. We didn’t care to make a visit to Iran, considering some of the threats emanating from fundamentalists there. We later found out that the night we went through the Straits of Hormuz, hugging the Omani coast, another sailboat, closer to the other coastline and crewed by five British sailors, was pulled over and arrested by the Iranian navy.

Our final approach to Dubai was made infinitely easier with Monish’s help. The Palm Islands off of Dubai’s coast were in the process of being manmade, and they’re not always marked on the charts. But the trip down the coast had been beautiful as night fell and the sandy dust settled. Lights from the buildings lit the harbor and surrounded the small basin in which we were able to anchor, just outside the Dubai marina. Nirvana was home at last, and I could catch the night flight to my own home in Newport, RI ready to start the next adventure. It’s unlikely that’ll it’ll be as magical or as fraught with risk as this last on.

Bill Biewenga has sailed more than 400,00 miles offshore. He is a delivery skipper, offshore navigator, weather router and moderator for the US Sailing Safety at Sea Seminars. When not at sea, he lives on Cape Cod, MA.

The Remarkable Silent Yachts Story

Last spring, Multihulls Today had a

long Zoom interview with Michael Kohler, founder and president of Silent Yachts, the builder of the unique solar powered, electric driven cruising catamarans. Many years in development, the Silent Yachts systems have proven extremely reliable, efficient and eco-friendly. The company builds seven models from 60 to 120 feet in three factories around the world. In 2022 they are introducing a diesel-electric hybrid design called the VisionF 82. You can visit the Silent Yachts website here. Multihulls Today: How did the concepts behind Silent Yachts all-electric cruising boats come about?

Michael Kohler: In 2006, we decided to explore the feasibility of designing a cruising catamaran that was all electric and powered only by natural energy sources, solar and wind. We built the boat and equipped it with everything that a cruising family would need to be comfortable in their floating home. We put on an electric stove and oven, a dishwasher and washing machine. We put on a fridge and freezer and a watermaker and then we tested it with both wind generators and solar. Over the course of a voyage from Europe to the Caribbean and back, we learned a lot about actual performance and learned that wind power was superior to solar on only a very few days a month. In the end you always have a schedule, so if the wind is not coming from the right direction, we and most sailors turn on what we call the “iron genoa” – the engine. In the end, over the course of five years, we measured the time spent sailing and motoring and discovered that it was more favorable to focus on motors instead of sails. Based on what we learned over that time, we began building a new 46 with an all-electric drive train and solar panels to charge the battery banks. We equipped the 46 with all of the electric appliances we put on the first boat. We then tested the 46 for another four years before deciding to put it into production. MT: Can you tell us something about the all-electric, solar panel driven power train? MK: in fact it is quite simple. We did not have to reinvent the technology. Electric motors , gensets and solar panels are all available on the market. The thing that was unique to Silent Yachts, was the hybrid technology. We are able to charge the batteries mainly with solar but we have a

generator as a back up in case we need it. And, also, we can charge the batteries in a marina with the power cords. The unique aspect of this is that we have connected all of the power source and all of the appliances and electronics in a way that works. There are many boats with parallel hybrid systems with both a diesel drive and an electric motor working on the same shaft. Large vessels like cruise ships and war ships, often are dieselelectric hybrids but do not have the diesel connected to the shaft, only the electric motors. This is for noise reasons since it is possible to cut down on vibration and noise. The thing that unique about our drive train is that we combine everything in one system, solar, generator, batteries and electric motors. MT: I was aboard the Silent 60 in Cannes and was impressed by the control panel and software you use to track battery condition and the performance of the whole integrated system. Is that unique to Silent Yachts? MK: Yes, we created our own proprietary software based on our many years of experience and testing. This is in fact the secret thing that makes the whole system work so well. In fact, integrating all of the pieces so they work together well is not so easy. If it was, many others would have done it. The solar panels and batteries, the generator and inverters, the motors and the drive train all have to talk to each other. At least, you need this software to do this in a professional way. For use by regular cruisers, the system needs to be safe, reliable and easy. So, all of the components need to speak a common language and work together. So, this is the software that we developed and what makes Silent Yacht unique. MT: Over the many years that you have been developing your solar

based electric power train, have you seen a big increase in the output from solar panels? MK: No, we have not. Thirteen years ago, when we developed the first 46, solar panel efficiency was at about 20%. Three years later we were at 21%. Until about three years ago, we were at 22% and today we are at 23%. MT: Batteries on the other hand have seen quite a lot of development and improvement, don’t you think? MK: Yes, this is indeed the case. With solar panels you can say they improve by one percent every five years. But with batteries, it is much quicker. We started using lithium batteries in 2012 in combination with lead-acid batteries. We kept the lead acid because lithium was brand new and we had no data on performance and reliability over the long term. The lithium bank weighed 75 kilos and had 10 kilowatt hours of capacity. The lead acid bank was much larger and weighed one ton and had the same capacity, but was about 12 times heavier than the lithium bank. After one season of hard testing in which we did a lot of things you really shouldn’t do to batteries, like fast charging and deep discharges, trying to get them hot and create an emergency shut-off situation, we found that the lithium batteries worked very well. We removed the lead-acid batteries and installed a second lithium battery bank and these are still the batteries that are on the boat. MT: Shifting gears, you now have three factories building your boats, one in Turkey, one in Thailand and the home plant in Italy. MK: Well, we have had to expand to meet the demand for our boats and deliver them in a reasonable time. In Thailand, they can only build two or three boats a year. In Italy, we can build up to 20 boats a year, depending on the size and model. But this is still not enough. We are also working with a large Turkish shipyard that is now building boats exclusively for us because demand

is so great. They are much bigger than our Italian production so we can really ramp up the number of boats and still make reasonable delivery times. MT: Your boats are pretty unique in the marketplace. What are your customers like? MK: You know, 50% of buyers are first time boat owners and it is interesting that each of them has the same reason for wanting a Silent Yacht. They all say that they have wanted to go on a yacht but they can’t sail, did not want to learn to sail and did not want to cope with the hassles of running a sailing boat. On the other hand, for these buyers owning a motorboat was not an option because of noise and fumes and vibrations and also because of the environment. So, motorboats were never an option. So, when they learned about Silent Yacht’s propulsion system and the rest that we deliver, they said yes, it is time for me to start boating and cruising. MT: Your vision was remarkable to see that the market for these boats was there. Have you seen many sailors buy your boats? MK: Yes, some, but less than I would have expected. So, 50% are first time boat buyers and the other half are evenly mixed between sailors and motorboaters. MT: You have a charter operation in Majorca, Spain. How does that fit into your business model? MK: Yes, the main reason for that is to have a way to introduce prospective buyers to the Silent Yachts experience. Our goal is to give everybody the opportunity to sail such a yacht, but not just for a few hours but for days and weeks so they can see how it really performs. How does it work? Are we pulling a raft behind with a generator on it? Or, do we have a long power cable running to shore? People want to understand how it works. Are there any restrictions? Do they have to switch off the lights and are they allowed to use appliances? Are they going to be able to flush the toilet because that will cost power? They soon discover that life aboard is exactly the opposite. We use electricity more freely on the boat than we do at home. At home, I always turn out the lights when I leave a room but on the boat I don’t because I don’t care. Tomorrow the batteries will be full anyway. MT: We see that you are initiating a Silent Yachts resort experience.

Can you tell us more about that? MK: Yes, the resorts project fits very neatly into our system because there is no reason, especially on islands, to rely on diesel generators. In real life, these noisy generators need barrels of oil and they pollute not only the air but also the soil. In a resort like this, our Silent system can work in the same way it does on our boats, with solar, batteries, a backup small diesel generator, and an electric generator. The diesel generator will only run after three or four days of terrible overcast and stormy weather. They may have to run the diesel generator a handful of times a year so pollution, noise and inconvenience is minimized. Our goal is to use sustainable energy as much as possible and reduce unsustainable energy to an absolute minimum. MT: Your first resort project is in the Bahamas. Are there others in the works? MK: Yes, the Bahamas project is already under construction. We also have projects in Central America and Greece and there are several more in discussion, including a large project in Fiji. MT: You are an international company. What are your plans for North America? MK: North America is a very important region for Silent Yachts. We have a wonderful distributor, Ed Sacks, who is 88 years old and is doing a terrific job and selling a lot of boats. This spring we delivered a new Silent 60 to the U.S. and ran numerous sea trials for prospective buyers and the marine press. Ed is doing a great job. MT: Many thanks, Michael. We look forward to seeing you at the next boat show.